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Published: September 13th 2012
Vancouver Airport
First photo on arrival. Arrival processes very easy. First entry of 2nd travel blog. Hopefully a lot easier off an ipad...
Brilliant that Air New Zealand now has the direct flight to Vancouver. Not so brilliant that it still takes 13 hours to make the flight. Having said that the flight was pretty good, flew through the night having left Auckland at 8pm on Wednesday evening.
Kids had been to school and we had hoped they would just mellow out and crash out on the plane. We were half right. Caitlin slept for hours, Reuben dozed for minutes. Reuben got a little restless when he couldnt settle - that annoying I want to be asleep but can't get comfortable situation. Having said that, apart from being a little anti social for the last 2 hours or so, he was his usual good traveller self. Caitlin was well rested and just loving it all.
Sandy should be writing this as she was the one who had the window seat and enjoyed the spectacular views of Vancouver and Vancouver Island, and she was the one who kept calling back over her shoulder that I should see this because it was so fantastic. But as I was the one seated in the second block in the middle of the plane. All I could see was the back of her head with a halo of light around it (as her protrubance was blocking the whole window) which was slightly maddonerish in the church sense as opposed to the rock diva one, but not a lot else. The kids were allowed an occasional peeks, apparently at some snow clad peaks sitting above a sea of green beneath a sky of blue. From the little I did see, it certainly looked special.
We landed around 2pm or so on Wednesday afternoon. The airport was quite cool. Strange how this seems important but I guess it is your first impression of a new place so maybe it is looking for impact to start a posiotive experience. The counter that tends to prove this position is when I consider arrival in Tonga and the airport there that is more on par with a dilapidated barn that should never get building consent.
Getting through Customs and Immigration was a breeze. Probably entirely due to having a cute 8 year old which prompted the nice lady directing the queues to the immigration lines to open up a gate and shepherd us into a queue for the elderly and infirmed. On review perhaps it was the aging father that prompted this courtesy.
Our host, Jennifer, from our exclusive personalised forest set bed and breakfast, Yeagers of Eagle Harbour, met us at the airport and transported us direct to our accommodation. The transport was a huge Ford pickup which Reuben just loved. Even the hour drive was spectacular. A brief pass through the edge of Downtown, past the fringe of Stanley Park, across the Frazer River with all the logs lined up, over the Lion Bridge looking out over the bay with the freighters spread through it and the islands beyond them. As it was all in bright sunlight it was all the more picturesque.
Then normality returned. Sandy and Jennifer discussed a shopping centre, Royal Park Mall, which we just happened to be passing soon and which had a large 'Whole Foods' store. No prizes for what happened next. We went to a shopping mall! Been in Canada less than an hour and we are in a mall. What are the odds? Normal people, long odds. Sandy in charge, at best even money. In the end it was a good call as this store had the most amazing pastries which we sampled sitting in the courtyard. Will be back there - probably more than once!
Set up in our accommodation around 5 pm. This place is set high in the trees amongst these towering pines with a large deck looking out over the forest. There are other houses around but they are well camouflaged amongst the trees and all are set well apart. Very quiet. Kids and I went for a walk down to a park at the bottom of the hill and wandered amongst the trees and streams for a while before casually wandering back where dinner was waiting.
The resident chef specialises in the local produce and last night the central focus of the dinner was salmon. Wood smoked on a plank of pine over a open flame. Just superb.
By 8 pm the kids were exhausted and nearly asleep. No, that what we wanted them to be but instead they were both bouncing off the walls, but being good fun with it, and we finally got them settled and asleep shortly after 10.15 pm. Then down for a good nights sleep, with some interference from a 'Cato'. Cato is a 5 month old Ragdoll kitten who is hilarious, but just slightly insane. I awoke in the small hours because of the lawn mower. It sounded like a lawn mower but only in left ear. The lesson here is that a cats purr when it is literally lying on the side of your head supplying an ear muff with a pulse sounds very much like a lawn mower, a 2 stroke to be more exact. I disengaged the feline headset and sent him to the bottom of the bed but he returned again and again and again and the final straw was the sand paper tongue across the top of my head. This is not relaxing. Cato and I then underwent a trial separation. Meaning I used the closed bedroom door to separate us.
Good start to the trip. Decent flight, everyone arrived well and our luggage even turned up. All good!
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Karen
non-member comment
How I've missed your blogs ....
Just loved reading this and quietly chuckling to myself over the description of Cato!!!! Glad you arrived safe and sound!!! Love you all heaps! Karen xxx